I FOUND MY MASSIVE CASE OF PENCIL CRAYONS TODAY!!!!

....

and now I'm going to be late for work, CRAP! *dashes*

Hello all,

So the weekend came and went, and I have to say I had a pretty good time. It's been a good while since I've been able to go to CN Anime.... in fact the last time I went was when it was still called CN Anime ha ha. So that would be about 3ish years now I think.

So any how, it was a fair bit of fun if you ask me. There were some hard feelings to get over and a bit of rough water getting there and getting ready for the con aka gettign costumes done. But in the end it was pretty good.

So here is my little 'con report'

Friday:
After getting no sleep the night before from both excitement and the need to finish sewing a few things for a costume. We caught the 9:10am train from Kingston to Toronto. I managed to get some sleep on the train while my cosplay partner finished off a little bit of sewing.

We arrived in Toronto a little late, which is pretty normal for the train if you ask me. Made our way to our hotel and checked in. Quickly getting our bags into our room we started to change into our costumes for the day, then proceeded to head on out to the con to pick up our tickets and explore the area. A few people took our picture and one group of people remembered us from Anime North when we were in the winter version of the uniforms of out characters.

Friday night we went out to eat then back to the hotel and down to check out the pool and whirlpool. Then back up to the room to finish off a few things for Saturday/Sunday, and off to bed.


Saturday:
I surprisingly was the first one ready seeing as to how I had the most stuff to get on for my costume. We got to the con about an hour later then planned, which is normal for us. I was waiting in the lobby of our hotel and ended up getting my picture taken a few times while waiting and had people come up to me to ask what was going on. Oh and the next time you are in a costume for a convention and someone asks you why your dressed up, look then in the eye and say with a straight face that you always dress like this. The reactions are great.

We traveled to the con via 'the path' from Union Station to avoid any rain and the windy streets. On our way we also ended up running into who was dressed up as Dark Link who was Tiger from Monster Rancher and anotehr individual whom I'm afraid I don't know who they were, sorry . Poor Thornrose was over heating and melting away by the time we got there. We had our picture taken together a few times and then got separated when he ran off to go look for a group of people and I was taken into the dealers room.

I couldn't stand still for like 3 minutes with out getting my picture taken, either from a far or up close. I even had a stalker for a little while. But I guess that's what happens when you are dressed up as Princess Zelda and you did a pretty good job... and you are tall and easy to find.

Saturday came to a close and we made a few new friends whom we went out to dinner with and I surprised when I came to meet them out of costume and they found out that I am not a blond.

Sunday:
I got my butt up and out of bed and made my way down to the health club of the hotel for a morning run and general work out time. First time running on a treadmill in a long long time... didn't like it. The job speed they preset was more like my fast walk, and the run was more like a jog ha ha.

After my workout, I headed back up to the room to help finish last minute things then get ready to go. We changed and headed out. We didn't get our pictures taken as much (well I didn't ha ha) as the day prior, but that is fine since I was still kind of seeing flash spots in my eyes ha ha. Sunday was our shopping day, which I find is easier since there are not as many people on the last day.

So after a good few pictures were taken and a few OMG's, oh and we happened to run into Bruce Campbell at the end of the day. Got a hand shake as he was leaving, poor guy looked really tired (still could have been a bit nicer and at least given a hug damn it! lol) as he was heading off.

We stopped for some dinner on the way back to the hotel and got a few pictures of our costumes. Went swimming after wriggling out or costume and then started packing for the trip home the next day.

END

So yeah, not really the most exciting con in the work if you ask me, but I do have some good memories from it. Such as a little girl who really wanted to show me her Yoshi, then when I knelt down to look at it she surprise hugged me.

I know a met a lot of other people as well but I can't remember whom they all were and I'm sorry.

It was wonderful to see people again (some I have not seen in like 2-3 years)and I hope it wont be another 2-3 years till the next time we meet in person again.

Any how, that is how I saw the convention this weekend (and what I can remember at this point in time after little sleep) I hope everyone who managed to go had a fun time, and hopefully I'll see some of you at Anime North 2010.

~Chikara-Rei

Hello everyone!

So I thought I'd take a little break from my pattern drawing and sewing to put up a little update.

SO things are going well, I'm crazy busy with technically three jobs, but I'm doing alright otherwise. I'm missing a fair number of my friends and am trying to keep in contact with them, which is hard when they live so far away.

I'm rather happy to report that I will be at Fan Expo, also known as CN Anime, this year for the first time in *thinks* 3 or 4 years now. I will be in costume and hopefully running around like an idiot and having fun. If anyone happens to find me at the convention then don't be afraid to say hi, I don't bite... that hard... anymore.

So I've been a busy little bee working on my own costume(s) as well as helping my cosplay partner to do a few things on her's. Like silk screening.... for 3 days, and this just happened to be when a heat wave hit, so things took even longer to dry with the humidity and I had to stop a few times just because I was getting too hot while working.

Things in general are going alright. I'm currently saving up for a trip next June, and am looking very much forward to that... as well as I am a little scared at the same time. It's been years since I've traveled farther then Toronto or Montreal and this will be the first time with out a family member. But I am going with a friend so I'm sure things will all work out fine and that there is nothing to worry about.

OH! I almost forgot, I have yet to get pictures back of my Zelda costume in full, ears, contacts and all, but I did happen across two pictures that I found in a random search the other day. They were taken at Anime North 2009 so I don't have my ears or contacts in but yeah, just go have a look for your selves ^_^. [link] and [link]

Any how that's it for now, have a good day/evening everyone.
As for me, it's back to work on patterns.

Later!
~Chikara-Rei

Hello all,

So this is kind of just to let people know I'm alive, not really well but alive.

I've picked up a rather nasty cold from my youngest nephew and it's taking me a while to get over it. I'm also having an issue financially, but I'm going to work on it and will make it past this little bump on the road.

*thinks* oh yeah I was making food.... I better go check on that.

And we are now back with food. *munches*

Ok now where was I... oh right updating. So yeah I have a cold which I have been sent home a few times because of... like I go into work they tell me I'm too sick and send me home before I even finish changing... that and I would have a fever of like 102.

Aside from that I have been trying to work out a way for being able to go to Fan Expo aka CNA. I still don't know for sure as of yet... but I hope to know soon. I'd really like to go since I have not been in... *thinks* 3-4 years now. What I will be in if I can go is a little up in the air right now as it will depend on cost.... I'd throw on my Zelda stuff but my dress go t a little messed up and again I don't know if I will have the time and money to make a new one or try and fix what I have. If I can fix it then I will be very happy.

My power was out for 8 hours on Tuesday June 23rd, there was a fire a block down and over from me in an old building that took out the whole of the downtowns electricity. I tripped over a lot of things that night.

Oh and sorry if I'm jumping around a lot and not making total sense... a little medicated right now on cough stuff.

Umm what else... I've been tinkering with a few things of late, sewing, a little painting, sculpting, metal/bead working, and I recently learned how to do needle tatting [link] so I'm going to have some fun playing around with that.

Uhhh.... That's really all that is coming to mind right now. So I shall leave it at that.

I give no promises to posting anything since I'm having a few issues with my computer but yeah. No one really expects to see anything from me anymore ha ha.

Have a good day everyone,
~Chikara-Rei

Whoo!

So I know I should have typed up an entry a while ago, but I had to work yesterday and Monday I was pretty much dead after I got back as well as I was giving my kitties much needed attention. They were well loved while I was gone, but I missed the fuzz off them.

So I have to say that this Anime North was one of... no the best I've had to date. There was no huge rush for costume finishing, just a little painting and I helped with one other costume piece as well as I had a commission all done and what not.

As I mentioned I traveled up on my birthday, it was an easy and non stressful trip and the bus driver even took us right to the hotels front door and helped us take in our bags! He was a rock star.

Thursday:
We pretty much relaxed a bit and worked on a few final things and picked up our tickets. I was sent out with another girl in our room to go look for a pizza place to pick up dinner for the room, and we were told to get Dr. Pepper *drolls* and ice cream on our way back. Also on our way out to find said pizza place, we stopped at the front desk and asked them first, it also came up that it was my birthday and jokingly I stroked my chin and asked if that meant we got a discount on our room. The woman at the desk told us to wait for a moment my reaction was "wow really?" and then she gave up four vouchers for a free breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. When we got back to the room after our adventure we were not allowed in... I stood out in the hall scratching on the door like a pathetic little critter wanting in from the rain. After a few minutes the door was opened and a huge smile came to my face as I saw green streamers and shinny banners saying Happy Birthday dangling from the ceiling. And over on the desk there was a big cake with a phantom hour glass Link and a fairy on it. Best birthday to date I have to say.

Friday:
The con didn't start till about 6pm so we took our time getting ready and went down for our free breakfast. I still had some painting left to do on my armor for my costume and ended up being the last person out of the room. I ended up having a few issues with one of my costumes, I had it on for about 30 minutes and a few things started falling apart. Lucky for me I brought pretty much everything I needed to fix it and make it stronger so it wasn't a huge deal. But still even with my costume falling apart people wanted my picture and in that span of 30 min I think my picture was taken about 20 times ha ha. I headed back to the room and changed back into my street clothes as I didn't feel right getting my picture taken in a costume that's falling apart. I also had this one group of girls ask for my picture, I said no since it was falling apart and had to start walking away saying "and I would like it if you respected my wishes" because one of them was still taking my picture even when I said no.

Saturday:
We headed out to the brunch in costume and on time, this is a big thing for us since we are never on time ha ha. After the brunch we ran around the convention, checked out the dealers room and did some shopping. We didn't get as much attention for our costumes (we as in my cosplay partner and I) since it's a not as well known series. Oh and if you are wondering the series is called La Corda D'Oro and I was dressed up as Len Tsukimori while my partner was Kahoko Hino. The best part of the day was walking along back to the con from the hotel (I need a little rest and passed out for a bit in the hotel room since I didn't sleep too well the night prior) a girl from the convention pointed at us and then dove into her bag searching for something. She pulled out the game we were from and asked for a picture ha ha. Those kinds of reactions are the best.

Sunday:
I had fixed up my costume I wore on Friday for a bit and headed out, there were a few things I ended up not wanting to fight with so I left them out, they were my ears, ear cuffs, contacts (just couldn't get them in), and I didn't paint my eyebrows blond... mostly cause I brought the wrong colour ha ha. So I headed out with my cosplay partner who was Natsume Hyuuga from Gakuen Alice and half way there she remembered she forgot her con pass so she went back and said she would meet me in artists ally. So I headed to artists ally... it took a little while to get there as I got stopped for pictures a lot ha ha. It's been a while since this has happened to me and it made me feel good that people liked my costume. I think the farthest I got around the convention grounds was about 20 steps before someone wanted my picture. And I guess I kind of stood out since I had heels on and I'm about 6'2"-3" with them on, and I had long blond hair, and shoulder armor. So yeah that costume went over pretty well, I tried to sit down for a bit and still had people wanting my picture ha ha, I had to change out of it before the con was over due to blisters on my feet from all of the walking.

So yeah it was a pretty kick ass weekend. On Monday my work tried calling me to see if I could come in... aparently they forgot I was in Toronto, and I also got a call from my Dad towards the end of the weekend with him wishing me a happy birthday and apologizing for forgetting it. I'm a big girl so it didn't bother me, at least he did remember and called.

Oh and in case you are wondering, which I'm sure a few people are, I was dressed up as Princess Zelda from Twilight Princess on Sunday

Any how I must be off! I may have today off but I still have cleaning to do and plans to confirm.... and possibly another cosplay to start working on ha ha.

Any how I shall try to find pictures or get some good ones taken of my costumes and see about posting a few here for people to see. It will take a while but I will get them up since I'm so proud of them

Have a kick ass day everyone!
~Chikara-Rei

p.s. Thornrose's [link] Viral was awesome and it was great to get to meet him in person even if it was just for a few minutes.